William Penn's Belief in the Superiority of Country Estates
William Penn's Belief in Freedom
Conclusion
Introduction
William Penn’s beliefs, much like the founding fathers’ beliefs, were radical and greatly influenced the planning of Philadelphia. Penn believed in freedom, personal choice, and religious toleration, and Philadelphia, unlike a lot of other cities, was founded on these beliefs. This is seen in Penn’s plan for Philadelphia, but unfortunately for Penn, he faced opposition to his plan from those who did not share his beliefs. Thus, the early history of Philadelphia is a history of the struggle of Penn to implement his radical ideas against the competing ideas of the occupants who did not share his beliefs.
William Penn’s Belief in Peaceful Relations
William Penn was a devout Quaker and firmly believed in peaceful relations amongst all men. This belief even carried over to the Native Americans living in Pennsylvania at the time. When Penn came to acquire the land that would be known as Pennsylvania from the Native Americans, he bought the land from them and did not take it away by force. He also promoted peaceful relations with the Native Americans saying “that no man shall, by any ways or means in work or deed, affront or wrong any Indian, but he shall incur the same penalty of the law as if he had committed it against his fellow planter” (Soderlund 74). Because of his insistence on peaceful relations, he did not make provisions for defense from them with walls surrounding Philadelphia. This allowed Philadelphia to grow under the influence of the natural geography of the site without any walls to hinder the growth of the city.
Penn’s firm beliefs about peace also carried over to affairs dealing with the inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia. He wanted the dissentions between different individuals to be taken care of in a spirit of brotherly love and wanted the courts and government to be involved as little as possible. This also included using as little force as possible, therefore there were not many enforcers of the law, which lead to a claim by Robert Turner that “Murtherings bloody Crew of Privateers whom we were become ye greatest harbourers of” (Weigley 20).
There were also laws regulating the conduct of the Philadelphians similar to those in England. In Penn’s Conditions to the Proprietors, he states “that the laws, as to slanders, drunkenness, swearing, cursing, pride in apparel, trespasses, distresses, replevins, weights and measures, shall be the same as in England till altered by law in this province” (Soderlund 74). Some residents did not like the strictness with which Penn and other Quakers adhered to this moral standard, including “Gov. Benjamin Fletcher, a royal appointee, [who] complained in the 1690s that the Pennsylvanians made one bout of drunkenness as serious a crime as fornication, at least for officeholders” (Weigley 29).
William Penn’s Belief in the Superiority of Country Estates
When Penn was younger and living in London with his family, he and his family survived the bubonic plague and a devastating fire a year later. These incidents greatly shaped Penn which could be seen in his vision for Philadelphia because he wanted “a green Country Towne, which will never be burnt, and always be wholesome” (Soderlund 85). Penn envisioned a Philadelphia that was a collection of country estates with “every house…placed, if the person pleases, in the middle of its plot…so there may be ground on each side for gardens or orchards or fields” (Soderlund 84-85) Penn also wanted the city to be ordered and not a random arrangement of country estates. He wanted “the figure of the town so that the streets hereafter may be uniform down to the water from the country bounds” and “the houses built…in a line, or upon a line as much as may be” (Soderlund 84-85).
All did not turn out as Penn wanted though. The inhabitants that lived in Philadelphia had different designs than huge country estates, as not all of the occupants were rich and a good number of them were commoners. By 1703, these people were clustered as close as possible to the Delaware River, living on lots that were subdivided from the original lots. The original lots were 102 feet wide; while the new subdivided lots were less than 20 feet wide (Weigley 15).
The Proprietors had numerous occasions where they did not like the way Penn had distributed the lots to them, so they complained to Penn, and he had to resolve the situation. A friend of Penn’s, Robert Turner, thought that his land was too far away from the center of commerce of the city, so Penn arranged that the local market would take place in front of Turner’s land and also gave him a discount on renting land to build a wharf. Another Proprietor, Barnabas Willcox, had his land allotments given away due to a surveyor mistake, so Penn compensated him with some lots along the Schuylkill River (Weigley 17).
William Penn’s Belief in Freedom
Penn’s belief that defined him the most was his belief in freedom. He was tolerant of different religions and gave the people much free reign in their own lives. His belief is best summed up by a letter of his written to the European settlers that were already living in Pennsylvania when he acquired the territory. In this letter he writes:
You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person…In short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for the security and improvement of their own happiness I shall heartily comply with. (Soderlund 55)
With this, Penn is allowing the settlers already present to choose for themselves how they live and will try to stay out of their business as much as possible.
Penn used a similar approach when advertising Pennsylvania to Europeans in a tract he wrote in 1681. When speaking of “the Constitution of the country,” he stated “that no law can be made, nor money raised, but by the people’s consent” and that “we may enact what laws we please for the good prosperity and security of the said province…and settle a free, just, and industrious colony there” (Soderlund 62). In this tract Penn did not mention his Quaker beliefs because he was aiming at a large base of prospective buyers, and as such appealed to their sense of liberty.
This freedom was laid down in “The Fundamental Constitutions of Pennsylvania” in the year 1681. In it, Penn lists freedoms that will be enjoyed by the people. Penn begins with religious freedom stating “that every person that does or shall reside therein shall have and enjoy the free possession of his or her faith and exercise of worship towards God” (Soderlund 99). The second constitution guarantees impartiality of the government, so “all those laws which relate to prevention or correction of vice and injustice be impartially and vigorously executed” (Soderlund 99).
Unfortunately for some of the inhabitants of Philadelphia, The Fundamental Constitutions of Pennsylvania was never enacted. Instead, the Frame of Government was proposed, which had some major differences. In the Fundamental Constitutions, a House of Proprietors and House of Freeholders had equal parts in ruling Philadelphia, but in the Frame of Government “all laws be prepared by the House of Proprietors” (Soderlund 110). This essentially meant that the wealthy occupants of Philadelphia would have more power than other residents. This was a problem with many colonists that would not be rectified until the Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges was passed in 1701.
It is contradictory that William Penn would promote liberty and freedom, while giving more power to the wealthy, but Penn was a human being and as such is imperfect and prone to error. He truly believed that country estates were better than a densely populated city and tried to promote that belief. He also wanted the residents to live and choose for themselves what they wanted to do, but these are conflicting desires.
Penn tried to persuade the residents to follow his beliefs, but soon after the founding of Philadelphia, there was dissention with the taxes that Penn was leveling against the residents and with the land allotments he was giving to the Proprietors, therefore, the Proprietors wrote a Remonstrance to Penn. Penn satisfied their requests and quelled the dissention for a time, but it would not last. More problems with the colonist would happen, culminating in passage of the Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges, which gave the colonists much more control over their own destiny.
Conclusion
William Penn was a man ahead of his time. He was a founding father of America, even before the thirteen colonies had major grievances with the homeland, because he stood for liberty, personal choice, and religious toleration. He was not perfect, and his ideology could be said to be somewhat contradictory, but for the first year or two Penn was a “very worthy man and famous ruler” (Soderlund 355). Ultimately Penn deeply cared for Philadelphia and wanted the best for it saying in his farewell letter written in 1684, “And thou Philadelphia…what love, what care, what service, and what travail have there been to bring thee forth and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee. Oh, that thou may be kept from the evil that would overwhelm thee” (Soderlund 396). In the end, Philadelphia was as much a product of William Penn as the settlers who came to call the city home.
Works Cited Primary:
Soderlund, Jean R., et al., eds. William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania, 1680-1684: A Documentary History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1983. Secondary:
Weigley, Russell F., et al., eds. Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W.W. Norton, 1982. Reference:
"William Penn." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 10 June 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn>.
Introduction
William Penn’s beliefs, much like the founding fathers’ beliefs, were radical and greatly influenced the planning of Philadelphia. Penn believed in freedom, personal choice, and religious toleration, and Philadelphia, unlike a lot of other cities, was founded on these beliefs. This is seen in Penn’s plan for Philadelphia, but unfortunately for Penn, he faced opposition to his plan from those who did not share his beliefs. Thus, the early history of Philadelphia is a history of the struggle of Penn to implement his radical ideas against the competing ideas of the occupants who did not share his beliefs.
William Penn’s Belief in Peaceful Relations
William Penn was a devout Quaker and firmly believed in peaceful relations amongst all men. This belief even carried over to the Native Americans living in Pennsylvania at the time. When Penn came to acquire the land that would be known as Pennsylvania from the Native Americans, he bought the land from them and did not take it away by force. He also promoted peaceful relations with the Native Americans saying “that no man shall, by any ways or means in work or deed, affront or wrong any Indian, but he shall incur the same penalty of the law as if he had committed it against his fellow planter” (Soderlund 74). Because of his insistence on peaceful relations, he did not make provisions for defense from them with walls surrounding Philadelphia. This allowed Philadelphia to grow under the influence of the natural geography of the site without any walls to hinder the growth of the city.
Penn’s firm beliefs about peace also carried over to affairs dealing with the inhabitants of the city of Philadelphia. He wanted the dissentions between different individuals to be taken care of in a spirit of brotherly love and wanted the courts and government to be involved as little as possible. This also included using as little force as possible, therefore there were not many enforcers of the law, which lead to a claim by Robert Turner that “Murtherings bloody Crew of Privateers whom we were become ye greatest harbourers of” (Weigley 20).
There were also laws regulating the conduct of the Philadelphians similar to those in England. In Penn’s Conditions to the Proprietors, he states “that the laws, as to slanders, drunkenness, swearing, cursing, pride in apparel, trespasses, distresses, replevins, weights and measures, shall be the same as in England till altered by law in this province” (Soderlund 74). Some residents did not like the strictness with which Penn and other Quakers adhered to this moral standard, including “Gov. Benjamin Fletcher, a royal appointee, [who] complained in the 1690s that the Pennsylvanians made one bout of drunkenness as serious a crime as fornication, at least for officeholders” (Weigley 29).
William Penn’s Belief in the Superiority of Country Estates
When Penn was younger and living in London with his family, he and his family survived the bubonic plague and a devastating fire a year later. These incidents greatly shaped Penn which could be seen in his vision for Philadelphia because he wanted “a green Country Towne, which will never be burnt, and always be wholesome” (Soderlund 85). Penn envisioned a Philadelphia that was a collection of country estates with “every house…placed, if the person pleases, in the middle of its plot…so there may be ground on each side for gardens or orchards or fields” (Soderlund 84-85) Penn also wanted the city to be ordered and not a random arrangement of country estates. He wanted “the figure of the town so that the streets hereafter may be uniform down to the water from the country bounds” and “the houses built…in a line, or upon a line as much as may be” (Soderlund 84-85).
All did not turn out as Penn wanted though. The inhabitants that lived in Philadelphia had different designs than huge country estates, as not all of the occupants were rich and a good number of them were commoners. By 1703, these people were clustered as close as possible to the Delaware River, living on lots that were subdivided from the original lots. The original lots were 102 feet wide; while the new subdivided lots were less than 20 feet wide (Weigley 15).
The Proprietors had numerous occasions where they did not like the way Penn had distributed the lots to them, so they complained to Penn, and he had to resolve the situation. A friend of Penn’s, Robert Turner, thought that his land was too far away from the center of commerce of the city, so Penn arranged that the local market would take place in front of Turner’s land and also gave him a discount on renting land to build a wharf. Another Proprietor, Barnabas Willcox, had his land allotments given away due to a surveyor mistake, so Penn compensated him with some lots along the Schuylkill River (Weigley 17).
William Penn’s Belief in Freedom
Penn’s belief that defined him the most was his belief in freedom. He was tolerant of different religions and gave the people much free reign in their own lives. His belief is best summed up by a letter of his written to the European settlers that were already living in Pennsylvania when he acquired the territory. In this letter he writes:
You shall be governed by laws of your own making, and live a free and, if you will, a sober and industrious people. I shall not usurp the right of any, or oppress his person…In short, whatever sober and free men can reasonably desire for the security and improvement of their own happiness I shall heartily comply with. (Soderlund 55)
With this, Penn is allowing the settlers already present to choose for themselves how they live and will try to stay out of their business as much as possible.
Penn used a similar approach when advertising Pennsylvania to Europeans in a tract he wrote in 1681. When speaking of “the Constitution of the country,” he stated “that no law can be made, nor money raised, but by the people’s consent” and that “we may enact what laws we please for the good prosperity and security of the said province…and settle a free, just, and industrious colony there” (Soderlund 62). In this tract Penn did not mention his Quaker beliefs because he was aiming at a large base of prospective buyers, and as such appealed to their sense of liberty.
This freedom was laid down in “The Fundamental Constitutions of Pennsylvania” in the year 1681. In it, Penn lists freedoms that will be enjoyed by the people. Penn begins with religious freedom stating “that every person that does or shall reside therein shall have and enjoy the free possession of his or her faith and exercise of worship towards God” (Soderlund 99). The second constitution guarantees impartiality of the government, so “all those laws which relate to prevention or correction of vice and injustice be impartially and vigorously executed” (Soderlund 99).
Unfortunately for some of the inhabitants of Philadelphia, The Fundamental Constitutions of Pennsylvania was never enacted. Instead, the Frame of Government was proposed, which had some major differences. In the Fundamental Constitutions, a House of Proprietors and House of Freeholders had equal parts in ruling Philadelphia, but in the Frame of Government “all laws be prepared by the House of Proprietors” (Soderlund 110). This essentially meant that the wealthy occupants of Philadelphia would have more power than other residents. This was a problem with many colonists that would not be rectified until the Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges was passed in 1701.
It is contradictory that William Penn would promote liberty and freedom, while giving more power to the wealthy, but Penn was a human being and as such is imperfect and prone to error. He truly believed that country estates were better than a densely populated city and tried to promote that belief. He also wanted the residents to live and choose for themselves what they wanted to do, but these are conflicting desires.
Penn tried to persuade the residents to follow his beliefs, but soon after the founding of Philadelphia, there was dissention with the taxes that Penn was leveling against the residents and with the land allotments he was giving to the Proprietors, therefore, the Proprietors wrote a Remonstrance to Penn. Penn satisfied their requests and quelled the dissention for a time, but it would not last. More problems with the colonist would happen, culminating in passage of the Pennsylvania Charter of Privileges, which gave the colonists much more control over their own destiny.
Conclusion
William Penn was a man ahead of his time. He was a founding father of America, even before the thirteen colonies had major grievances with the homeland, because he stood for liberty, personal choice, and religious toleration. He was not perfect, and his ideology could be said to be somewhat contradictory, but for the first year or two Penn was a “very worthy man and famous ruler” (Soderlund 355). Ultimately Penn deeply cared for Philadelphia and wanted the best for it saying in his farewell letter written in 1684, “And thou Philadelphia…what love, what care, what service, and what travail have there been to bring thee forth and preserve thee from such as would abuse and defile thee. Oh, that thou may be kept from the evil that would overwhelm thee” (Soderlund 396). In the end, Philadelphia was as much a product of William Penn as the settlers who came to call the city home.
Works Cited
Primary:
Soderlund, Jean R., et al., eds. William Penn and the founding of Pennsylvania, 1680-1684: A Documentary History. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1983.
Secondary:
Weigley, Russell F., et al., eds. Philadelphia: A 300 Year History. New York: W.W. Norton, 1982.
Reference:
"William Penn." Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 10 June 2009 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Penn>.